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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328654">The Art of Getting Back Up</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualGhoul/pseuds/BisexualGhoul'>BisexualGhoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Darkwing Dewey! [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991), DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Future Fic, Gen, Launchpad is mentioned but doesn't actually turn up, M/M, Mallard-McQuack Family (Disney), launchpad and drake are married</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:01:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>925</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328654</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualGhoul/pseuds/BisexualGhoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gosalyn has a hard time imagining having any crime-fighting partner other than her dad.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Drake Mallard &amp; Gosalyn Mallard, Drake Mallard/Launchpad McQuack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Darkwing Dewey! [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Art of Getting Back Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Quiverwing Quack skids into the hideout with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. She’s exhausted from a long night of patrol and doesn’t have the energy for her usual showy yet graceful entrance. She hops off the bike and hastily drops her crossbow and arrows onto the couch, rubbing her sore shoulder as she heads to her room. Gosalyn Mallard emerges a few minutes later. As she walks back out of her room in search of water (and painkillers), she hears the already familiar sound of a cane tapping the ground accompanied by light footsteps. </p><p>“Hey old man,” Gosalyn says quietly, walking the other way down the hall to meet her dad.</p><p>“Hey kiddo,” Drake replies, ignoring the dig and not mentioning for once that he doesn’t need her to walk next to him like he’s gonna collapse at any moment.</p><p>They head toward the main area of the lair, which functions as the living room and motorcycle parking. Drake tsks when he sees Gosalyn’s motorcycle laid haphazardly on its side, and Gosalyn simply shrugs, wincing a second later as she aggravates her bruised shoulder. She hopes her dad doesn’t notice, but he is, as he likes to remind her, ever vigilant.</p><p>“Gosalyn, are you ok?”</p><p>“Of course I am, Dad. Just a little post-patrol tenderness. Nothing you need to worry about.”</p><p>“You know I have to worry. You’re my kid.”</p><p>“I’m 25,” Gosalyn says with a mostly good-natured roll of her eyes. </p><p>“It doesn’t matter how old you get. You’ll always be my kid.”</p><p>Drake ushers her onto the couch in spite of her protests and makes his way to the bathroom, pulling the medical kit out from under the sink. He tries to look less worried than he is, but he’s never been good at hiding his feelings from his loved ones. Gosalyn accepts the kit and watches her dad’s back as he walks over to the kitchen to grab her a cup of water. Gosalyn finds some ibuprofen and shakes a couple of pills out, swallowing them dry in her impatience, then following them with water once her dad returns.</p><p>“Gos, I know you don’t want to talk about it--”</p><p>“Then let's not.”</p><p>“Gosalyn seriously.”</p><p>“I am serious.” </p><p>Gosalyn knows what he’s gonna say and she doesn’t want to hear it. She doesn’t need a new partner. Her dad would be all healed up in a matter of weeks and then they could keep patrolling together like usual, with pops joining in every so often when he wasn’t busy at work. Everything would go back to normal. They just have to wait it out.</p><p>“Gos...I don’t think I’m gonna get much better,” Drake admits. He’s been putting off telling her, but seeing her roughed up and still believing he’d be back at it again soon is too much for him.</p><p>“The doctor said I’ll be able to get around fine, and with enough PT I should be able to drop the cane within a month or two, but I’m just...not gonna be able to patrol with you anymore. One more hard hit, one more fight gone wrong, and I could be down for real. For <i>good</i>.”</p><p>Tears well up in Gosalyn’s eyes. She knows. She’s known it all along. From the moment she saw Darkwing go down and not get back up all of those weeks ago. She saw it in her pops’ eyes when he ran toward them and collapsed at Darkwing’s side, at <i>her dad’s</i> side, and took his hand in his. She remembers freezing in that moment, before her body entered autopilot and she eliminated the threat that was <i>somehow still coming</i> even after this indescribable moment of loss. The blatant nerve of the villain--not even a <i>cool</i> villain--as he comes at her makes her clock him on instinct. She remembers crunching, and a warm wetness covering her hands. She remembers how in that moment, she could only think of the stillness of her dad’s body, and the look of fear in her pops’ eyes, and nothing else. She remembers her pops coming out of nowhere and wrapping his arms around her, safe and warm, but restrictive.</p><p>She remembers coming back to herself, and seeing a horrible sight. The villain’s nose was broken, and his face was swelling up. He was still breathing, but the action came with an obvious struggle. She remembers wanting to cry.</p><p>“Gos?” she hears her dad prod gently from her left. He’s looking at her worriedly.</p><p>“I--I know Dad. I know you’re not coming back. I just wish things were different.”</p><p>“I know Gos, me too.”</p><p>He sounds tired, and Gosalyn wonders if he stayed up all night waiting for her to come back. </p><p>“We can talk about it more tomorrow, Dad. Or um, later today, I guess,” she amends, noting the sunlight starting to creep over the horizon.</p><p>“Let’s go to bed.”</p><p>She reaches down a hand to help her dad stand, and he accepts without complaint. She sees him to his and Launchpad’s room, and resists the urge to follow him in and curl up in bed next to them like she used to following the destruction of the Ramrod.</p><p>Instead, Gosalyn wanders to her room, wondering if superheroing will ever be the same to her as it once was. As she collapses into bed, she decides that she really will talk to her dad and her pops about finding a new partner. St. Canard needs Darkwing Duck, and so does Quiverwing Quack.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So far I'm just feeling this series out. I don't think parts will be posted chronologically; I'll probably hop around and write whatever comes to me as it comes. Because of that I'm marking this fic as finished because I don't want to tie myself down to this one part.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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